Oft-quoted movie lines a rarity in today’s cinema

While the box office might be in fine spirits, lately there’s been a different sort of recession plaguing the movie industry: a lack of memorable quotes. While the box office might be in fine spirits, lately there’s been a different sort of recession plaguing the movie industry: a lack of memorable quotes.

As Michael Cieply of The New York Times noted in an Oct. 19 article, fewer and fewer movies are producing lines that find their way into everyday conversation. True, there have been some exceptions — what teenager hasn’t quoted “Borat” or “Mean Girls”? — but you’d be hard pressed to list five post-2000 films capable of “Godfather” or “Star Wars”-like levels of citation.

This isn’t because screenwriting capabilities have faltered — quite the contrary, in fact: Some of the most talented screenwriters in history — Aaron Sorkin, Quentin Tarantino, Jason Reitman — are alive and well, churning out dialogue almost sharper than real life. Instead, I think, the blame lies with us.

You’ll notice that the two aforementioned exceptions to this rule, “Borat” and “Mean Girls,” are comedies. This is no coincidence: Young people have become increasingly self-conscious, and to state with sincerity something that might seem cheesy or cliché is rapidly becoming a grave sin. Because of this, the value of serious movies lines is diminished. Instead, people are hungry, first and foremost, for absurdity.

Take, for example, the exception that proves the rule: Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room.” Earlier this year I devoted an entire column to this 2003 film, which has remained entrenched in my memory whereas other, more capable films have faded into the ether. This is probably because “The Room” is the worst movie I’ve ever seen; it lingers with a viewer in the same way traumas linger with people longer than happier moments.

For that small minority of readers that don’t religiously follow my column, here’s a brief introduction: “The Room” is a melodrama about a love triangle between Johnny  — played by the director, Tommy Wiseau, a bizarre-looking gentleman with a mangled Eastern European  accent — his fiancé Lisa and his best friend Mark.

The film is oblivious to all filmic conventions — establishing shots, linear narrative, a time limit for sex scenes — and is shot with two different types of cameras, often against a greenscreen backdrop.

What makes “The Room” relevant to this discussion is that it’s bad in a way that’s uproariously funny. Namely, there are two aspects of this movie that provoke uncontrollable laughter: the aforementioned technical incompetence, and a script so abysmal it’s almost as if it were originally written in a different language and then converted into English by an online translator.

Here’s a few of “The Room’s” most famous zingers: “I feel like I’m sitting on an atomic bomb waiting for it to go off”; “I got the results of the test back — I definitely have breast cancer”; “As far as I’m concerned, you can drop off the Earth — that’s a promise”; and most famously, “You are tearing me apart, Lisa!”

In a more dignified age, perhaps, these lines would have never seen the light of day. In the novelty-crazed 2000s, however, they’re some of the only bits of movie dialogue that still makes it into conversation. YouTube has gone a bit nuts with users citing Wiseau’s Chernobyl of a script — just watch the multiple compilations of “The Room’s” best lines — and even celebrities like Patton Oswalt and David Cross have paid the film’s sound bites homage. Furthermore, I defy anyone to watch footage of people at a “Room” screening who don’t religiously summon their favorite lines.

What does it mean that “The Room” is one of the few remaining new films to successfully infiltrate conversation? Simply that people have grown tired of quality film lines, and seek instead new ways to be ironic, to have a laugh at sincere movies’ expenses.

Of course, the diminishing frequency of new, great lines is a comparatively small problem — great films and great screenplays are still being made. I only wish that, when the time comes to impart pop culture wisdom on our kids and grandkids, we’ll have someone more wizened to quote than Tommy Wiseau.